Calcutta, June 26: Debapriya Sengupta will become the first Uchcha Madhyamik student to have her answer scripts reassessed, setting a precedent that could help thousands of students clear doubts about their marks.

Calcutta High Court today directed the West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education to reassess Debapriya’s answer script.

Till now, the review was confined to a process known as scrutiny, which involves re-totalling the marks and checking whether any answer had been left unmarked.

The high court directive came on a petition filed last week by Debapriya, a student of Labanhrad Vidyapith of Salt Lake, saying she had been wrongly assessed.

Debapriya has cleared the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and has ranked 1,700 but failed this year’s higher secondary examination.

The court directed the council to constitute a committee of three examiners, not those who had originally examined the scripts, to reassess her physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics papers. She had failed in all four subjects.

D.N. Munshi, an official, said the system of reassessment had never existed since the council was set up in 1976. “We have not seen today’s judgment. We will decide on whether to challenge it after getting a copy of the order,” he said.

The court ruled that the committee should submit a report within 10 days. “After going through the details, the court observes that this is a very rare case. This directive (for reassessment) is necessary because the council does not have the provision,” Justice Biswanath Somadder said.

Responding to the petition, the court had directed the council to produce today Debapriya’s scripts in the four subjects. Earlier, officials of her school were asked to furnish the scripts of her selection test in which she had performed well.

The court virtually became an examination centre with the judge going through the selection test papers first and the higher secondary scripts later.

He found that all questions had been examined and there was no mistake in the totalling, following which the order was issued.

This year, at least 25 candidates who have cleared the JEE but failed in the board exams, have moved court.